


On the Run

by ami_ven



Series: On the Run [1]
Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: AU from Season 1, Alternate Universe, Community: mcsheplets, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-19
Updated: 2014-01-19
Packaged: 2018-01-09 06:25:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 831
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1142569
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ami_ven/pseuds/ami_ven
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“What happened?  Where are we?”</p>
            </blockquote>





	On the Run

**Author's Note:**

> written for LJ community "mcsheplets" prompt #126 "runaway"
> 
> (These will be posted here in publication order. To read them in internal chronological order, head to the [LJ master post](http://ami-ven.livejournal.com/360539.html).)

John woke to a dull ache in his ribs and a gentle hum he could feel more than hear. He felt fuzzy around the edges, like he was coming off of some really good painkillers, so it took him a moment to realize he was lying on the floor of a puddle jumper. The lights were dimmed, and he could just make out a figure in the pilot’s chair, muttering in a low voice.

“Rodney?” John rasped.

The figure whirled. “Sheppard!” 

Rodney knelt beside him, and began fidgeting with the edges of his sleeping bag. He looked completely wrung-out, like he hadn’t stopped, or shaved, or slept for a couple of days, and he kept glancing back toward the cockpit.

“You okay?” John asked.

“Me?” said Rodney, sounding just this side of hysterical. “God, _Sheppard_ …”

John frowned. “What happened? Where are we?”

“We’re in a ‘jumper. And we’re… How much do you remember?”

The ache in his ribs was getting less dull by the second. “Um…” said John.

“Do you remember the court-martial?” Rodney asked, warily.

“Um…” John said again. Then, it all came back in a rush. The MPs waiting on the other side of the wormhole to Earth. An apologetic Colonel Mitchell, beside a general he’d never seen before, some guy named West, who offered an insulting smile as he recited the charges. Rodney’s voice, shouting in John’s defense, the last thing he heard before the MPs led him away.

The court-martial had been a sham. There had been no testimony, no chance to defend himself, and the sentence had been swift. John remembered arriving at Leavenworth, staring at the blank ceiling of his cell for days— weeks?— then…

He tried to sit up, and fell back again, wincing as his ribs flared painfully. “What happened?” he repeated.

“I busted you out of jail,” said Rodney, in complete seriousness.

“You—” John began. He looked around the ‘jumper. His sleeping bag was really more of a bedroll, several ground covers and blankets all piled together. Crates of military-issue gear and non-perishables were stacked in nearly all the remaining space. “What _happened_ , Rodney?”

“You got stabbed, Sheppard,” said Rodney, sounding a little hysterical again. “You got stabbed, and you almost died. And I couldn’t— If you died, I would have— We did not survive a year fighting the Wraith and the Genii for you to get shafted in prison.”

“It’s ‘shanked’, McKay,” said John, then managed a tiny smile. “You really busted me out?”

“The security in the prison infirmary was laughable,” he said, defensively. “I hacked into their computer system in under ten minutes, faking General West’s authorization was even easier. But you were pretty out of it, Sheppard. Those hack prison doctors had you on too many painkillers, so you wouldn’t notice what a terrible job they did patching you up. Carson nearly had a coronary when he examined you.”

“Carson was in on this?” John asked, sharply.

“No!” said Rodney. “I mean, I had to get you looked at properly, but there was no way he was coming with us. I, um, I stunned him, actually, so they’d believe he wasn’t conspiring with us.”

John relaxed a little. “Good,” he said, then tensed again as something else occurred to him. “How’d you get the puddle jumper through the ‘gate?”

“I didn’t,” said Rodney, unaccountably humble. “I mean, I _could_ have— I’m a genius, after all, but… I couldn’t take the risk of this not working, so I asked Sam to help.”

“Sam— You asked _Colonel Carter_ for help?” John knew Carter was Rodney’s biggest rival at the SGC, and that she had more than enough reason to hold a grudge against him. So for Rodney to have asked _her_ for help was... 

“Thanks,” he said, softly.

Rodney fiddled with the sleeping bag again. “I couldn’t just leave you there,” he muttered.

John reached out and caught his hand. “Thanks,” he repeated. 

Rodney looked up at him, and he suddenly knew that Rodney had missed him just as desperately as John had missed Rodney, like losing a part of himself. John squeezed his hand, and Rodney made no move to pull away.

“We’re in the Pegasus Galaxy,” said Rodney, after a long moment. “I used the ZPM to dial M-854, the one with the ‘gate on that incline, and pushed it over so they can’t dial it again. We’re about two days out from there.”

“Where are we going?”

“I don’t know,” Rodney admitted. “Does it matter?”

They couldn’t contact Atlantis, not yet. Elizabeth— if she was still in charge— would be forced to report them. Maybe they could get in touch with Teyla, sneak past Atlantis’s sensors to the Mainland and join the Athosians. Or they could just take their one little puddle jumper and do as much damage to the Wraith as they could, trying to find other planets and starting up a resistance.

“No, Rodney,” said John, squeezing his hand again. “It doesn’t matter.”

THE END


End file.
